The Trump administration has expelled hundreds of migrants which she claims to be members of the MS -13 gang – calling them “terrorists” – at the famous Mega -Prison Cecot in El Salvador.
Could American citizens condemned for violent crimes be the next?
“If it is a local criminal, I have no problem,” President Donald Trump said on Monday at the Oval Office during his meeting with President Salvadoran Nayib Bukele.
“If we can do that, that’s good. And I’m talking about violent people. I’m talking about really bad people. Really bad people. Just as bad as those who arrive.”
Before journalists are born in the room, Trump even suggested to Bukele that he should build more prisons because the mega-prison is not “big enough” to hold “the locals” that he wants to send from the United States
“We are studying the laws right now,” said Trump after saying earlier than they “always had to obey the law.”
He made a similar comment on sending Americans to foreign prisons in February, also saying at the time that laws should be checked.
Several legal experts have told ABC News that such a scenario would be unconstitutional.
“I do not think that a president who understands the rule of law or who respects constitutional democracy in which we live would even think in these terms,” said David Leopold, lawyer and former president of American Immigration Lawyers Association.
“The United States is the home of American citizens. And citizens cannot be expelled,” said Leopold.
President Donald Trump meets the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, in the oval office of the White House in Washington, April 14, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
“There are many constitutional provisions which prohibit the President and the Attorney General to send American criminals to prisons in other countries,” said Michael Gerhardt, professor of constitutional law at the University of North Carolina.
Several administration officials have been in a hurry to draw up on the legal grounds which, according to them, would allow them to do so. Until now, they have bypassed.
“Well, Jesse, it is Americans he says who committed the most odious crimes in our country. And crime will decrease considerably because it has given us a directive for America to be secure again,” said Prosecutor General Pam Bondi, who specifically said that Fox News host, Jesse Watters, “Primemediy” on Monday evening.
“These people must be locked up as long as they can, as long as the law allows. We will not let them go anywhere. And if we have to build more prisons in our country, we will do it,” said Bondi, notably mentioning the sending of Americans to prisons to the United States
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was invited Tuesday if the expulsion of American citizens to the prisons of Central is legal or if the administration was to change the law.
“Well, this is another question that the president raised,” said Leavitt. “This is a legal question in which the president examines.”
The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with journalists in James Brady’s press design room in the White House, April 15, 2025, in Washington.
Alex Brandon / AP
Trump and other officials said they would conduct American criminals who commit “blatant” crimes. Trump quoted criminals on Monday who “push people in the metros” or “hit older women at the back of their heads”.
“Of course, we have the right as government to incarcerate people who are a danger to society, even to execute people who are danger to society, but they are Americans, they remain here. It is the basic right of citizenship, and has always been,” said Amanda Frost, professor at the University of Virginia School of Law.
Any effort to expel an American citizen towards a Salvador prison (his Cecot prison was criticized for alleged human rights violations) or elsewhere would probably constitute a violation of the eighth amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual sanctions, said Frost.
The Salvadorian prisoners escort members claimed members of the Venezuelan gang Tren from Aragua and the MS-13 gang recently expelled by the US government of Cecota, Tecoluca, El Salvador on April 12, 2025.
Press secretary of the presidency via Reuters
A potential escape could be that the Trump administration is trying to target naturalized American citizens, who can lose their immigration status if they have committed betrayal or falsified information during their naturalization process. But these cases are rare.
“If someone is a naturalized citizen, there could be an effort to distort this person and deport him,” said Frost. “But they would then have to commit a kind of fraud or error in their naturalization process. An unrelated crime could not be the basis of distorting and deporting someone.”
However, the experts were alarmed by Trump comments on sending American citizens to foreign prisons – especially since the legal battle concerning Kilmar Abrego Garcia continues to play.
Abrego Garcia is detained at Cecot after being wrongly expelled by the Trump administration last month. Trump and other officials say he is a member of the MS-13 gang, although the administration did not provide little evidence in court.
The Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States and to say that it was illegally expelled. Bondi said on Monday that it was “to El Salvador” on Monday to bring him back, and President Salvadoran Bukele said he wouldn’t.
“It’s frightening,” said Frost, “because if it is their point of view, then assuming that they can succeed in getting the people of the country, they could then throw their hands and say:” We can do nothing about it. “”
ABC News’ main policy correspondent Rachel Scott asked Tom Homan, Trump’s “TSAR”, if he thought he was illegal for Trump to send Americans to a prison in El Salvador, on Toma Homan, Homan said that he had not yet spoken to the president.
“This notion is so absurd,” said Leopold, former president of American Immigration Lawyers Association. “If it was not that terrifying that an exercise president of the United States is so vaguely uses rhetoric on the deportation of the citizens of the United States, it would be laughable.”
